Reuters AlertNet Lite - Bangladesh finishes pilot project to cut vote fraud

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Bangladesh finishes pilot project to cut vote fraud

30 Jun 2007 13:08:06 GMT
Source: Reuters

DHAKA, June 30 (Reuters) - Bangladesh's army-backed authorities successfully completed a pilot project on Saturday that gives thousands of voters a registration card with their own photograph to cut fraud, officials said.

Officials and troops took 20 days to photograph and fingerprint over 40,000 eligible voters at the project area at Sreepur, 70 km (40 miles) north of the capital Dhaka.

"The mode of Sreepur project will be utilised throughout the country when the listing of voters formally starts in western Rajshahi city in the middle of July," one official, A.T.M. Shamsul Huda, told a meeting.

A general election scheduled for January was postponed due to political violence amid accusations of vote-rigging and corruption by the two main parties.

A state of emergency was subsequently imposed by the interim authority and all political activity banned. A re-run of the poll is expected by the end of 2008.

The most recent list from 2006, which would have been used in the postponed Jan. 22 election, was found to be grossly flawed.

The Washington-based National Democratic Institute for International Affairs said the list contained more than 12 million fake entries.

The army will continue to help election commission officials enrol people for the voters' list and national identity cards.

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Last updated:Sat Jun 30 13:08:56 2007